


Of Anomalies and Electromagnetic Interference

by Silent_So_Long



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Community: happy_trekmas, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-08
Updated: 2011-12-08
Packaged: 2017-10-27 02:15:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/290543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silent_So_Long/pseuds/Silent_So_Long
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When returning from shore leave,  Kirk and Spock discover that something has happened to Leonard McCoy</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Anomalies and Electromagnetic Interference

**Author's Note:**

> written for the [happy_trekmas 2011 Exchange](http://happy-trekmas.livejournal.com).I had a lot of fun brushing up on my science, and researching electromagnetism while writing this fic, despite the fact that I blatantly and wilfully abused the effects of said electromagnetism upon a human’s body. It’s highly illogical that anything in this story could actually happen, but I sure had fun playing around with Dr McCoy, in the meantime. I hope the recipient likes this. I may not have used everything scienceblues wanted, but I did include some of the likes anyway!

The heat of Ellicott VI was sweltering against Leonard McCoy’s skin, as the red double suns beat down upon his dark haired head. He shielded his eyes against the glare, blue gaze narrowed still against the light. He felt a slight sheen of dampness collecting on his brow, over his body, making him feel uncomfortable and slightly homesick for the much cooler surrounds of the Enterprise.

The doctor had to smile at that, at how easily and quickly he missed the ship he had come to think of as home. The white Constellation class ship had had to quickly become that, after he’d left the plains of Georgia to find adventure amongst the stars. It seemed ironic to him that the rare chance that the crew could afford to take shore leave in order to escape going space-crazy within the Enterprise’s corridors and he still missed the place.

He sighed, and turned away, to allow his slim body to acclimate amongst the heaving crowds thronging the market streets of Ellicott VI. He went with the flow and press of bodies, recognising some of the off-worlders as being races he came up against most days during the voyages of the Enterprise. He spotted Romulans, one Klingon giving the nearest Romulan the stink-eye, plus a couple of Vulcans and Andarians., in amongst the expected denizens of Ellicott itself. Some of the off-worlders McCoy didn’t even have a name for, and he wondered, with a doctor’s clinical eye, just what they called themselves.

He stopped long enough to buy a cool drink with some of the last few credits he’d allowed himself for this trip, sipping at it as he perused the crowd around him again. It was the fifth such drink he’d imbibed since touching down upon the surface, and the effects of the alcohol was fizzing away at his brain, numbing his nerves against the heat just slightly. He’d barely finished his drink, coolness of the strange tasting yet fizzingly satisfying Endicottian brandy before his communicator trilled at his hip. He snagged it from his belt and flipped it open.

“McCoy,” he said, automatically.

“Bones? It’s Jim. We’re needed back on the Enterprise post-haste. Meet me back at the rendezvous site to beam aboard. Kirk out,” came the familiar tones of the Enterprise’s captain.

Despite the fact that Kirk sounded as relaxed and as confident as ever, McCoy still heard the faint frisson of tension that underlaid the captain’s tone. He’d known the captain for long enough to be able to recognise the subtle shifts in the other man’s voice, that most others who didn’t know Kirk half so well wouldn’t be able to determine. Throwing his disposable cup away, the doctor strode through the streets back to the designated rendezvous point. There, he met up with Kirk and Spock, waiting patiently nearby.

“I’ve sent the rest of the crew ahead. We’re needed back aboard the ship. Seems like there’s some kind of anomaly threatening the safety of our orbit,” Kirk informed McCoy when the doctor had joined them.

“Sounds like fun,” McCoy replied, dryly. “Just what we need after a relaxing spot of shore leave.”

Kirk grinned slightly at that, before he flipped open his communicator to hail the transporter room aboard the Enterprise.

“Kirk to Scotty. Energize. Three to board,” he said, calmly, body loose and ready for transportation.

“Aye, sir,” came the familiar sound of Montgomery Scott’s voice over the communicator.

McCoy took his position beside Kirk and prepared himself for transportation, as, on the captain’s other side, Spock mirrored the doctor’s movements.

~*~*~

Kirk knew there was something wrong soon after he felt the familiar stretch and pull of his atoms along the transportation beam. He’d travelled via the Enterprise’s transportation system enough times to know when it was working and when it was not, and yet other times, when it was malfunctioning. That time was one of the times when it almost worked, consciousness arriving but briefly upon the transporter platform, and the vague impression of Scotty standing nearby, red shirt bright against the cream wall of the Transporter room.

Then the familiar surrounds of the Enterprise had shimmered off into formless unreality, leaving its captain feeling stranded in some other realm not yet mapped upon his own true reality. He felt disjointed from the life that he counted as his, far from his ship, his command, his friends. Then everything snapped back into focus, to a very surprising sight indeed.

~*~*~

Spock felt the shift and displacement of his atoms while still halfway through transportation. He saw the faint flickers of the Enterprise shimmer before his eyes before it flickered back out of focus once more. He waited, watching the shifting patterns of unreality with a curious disregard, scrutinizing the half-light of another unmapped dimension with scientific calculation. His mind whizzed through various logical explanations as to why this had happened, and through several highly illogical ones, but he remained stoic and distanced from everything until he could attain the safety of the Enterprise once more.

Once the confines of the Transporter room snapped into clear focus and remained solidified around the Vulcan, he turned and saw, what he considered, the most fascinating thing he’d seen all day. One arch lift of his eyebrow gave away his feelings on the subject.

~*~*~

McCoy knew that something was wrong as soon as his atoms reassembled upon the transporter platform. For one thing, his body felt too tight, folded in upon itself somehow, and for another, his clothes were literally drooping from his now much smaller frame. He looked up at first Spock and then Kirk, and the doctor frowned. He didn’t remember ever having to look up to either the Vulcan or the Captain before; usually, his eyes were roughly on about the same level as both of them.

He turned to face Scotty when the engineer made a surprised noise from behind the Transporter Room’s main console, hands still resting upon the controls. The engineer's kind brown eyes were fixed upon the small form of McCoy, and he looked as though he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or be concerned, perhaps even horrified.

“Fascinating,” Spock said, as he stared down at McCoy with the same expressionless scrutiny as he gave most things that intrigued him.

“Damnit, Spock, if I hear you say that one more time - “ McCoy said, a little testily as he stared up at the Vulcan.

Slowly, his voice trailed off and the doctor became perturbed at how much his voice had changed. It had been a long time since he’d heard his voice sound quite so - childish, yet McCoy was loathe to admit that. He was far too used to gruff, adult tones, vowels rounded out by soft Southern tones becoming more pronounced when he was particularly vexed or relaxed. In his current state of current diminutiveness, his voice seemed to have also have changed, somewhat higher and reminiscent of how it had been when he’d been but seven years of age. His accent, still quite strong at that age and more pronounced with the Georgia softness, had returned. He lifted one hand and stared at it, much smaller now than what it should have been.

“Well, Jesus Christ on a cracker, I’m seven years old again,” he said, as he angled small fingers to and fro in the light of the Transporter Room.

He looked down and saw his medical tunic hanging well past his knees, where it should have ended quite neatly at his waist, while his pants did, indeed, pool in thick swathes around his ankles. His boots, perfectly fitting in his adult form were now too large, too clunky and likely to trip him should he make any attempt at walking in the near future.

“Not a damn word, Jim,” McCoy said, when the captain opened his mouth to say something suitably snarky, considering James Kirk’s usual track record.

Dutifully, Kirk remained silent, yet still his eyes glimmered with amusement and his lips quirked in constant amusement. Eventually, his natural wont for speaking his thoughts aloud won out over any doctor’s orders and he opened his mouth to speak.

“You have to admit, you were kinda cute when you were a kid,” he said, smile growing wider still at the incensed look upon the doctor’s small face.

McCoy's face darkened, obviously not enjoying the transformation to his current person, yet Scotty saved the day once again and spoke up before McCoy could say anything about it.

“I dinnae ken what happened, Cap’n,” he said, kind brown eyes openly staring at McCoy still. “Why is McCoy a wee bairn?”

McCoy harrumphed and tried to stomp off the transporter platform, yet stumbled upon his too large boots. If not for the timely catching hands of Spock, the doctor would have tumbled face-first onto the floor. Spock, looking vaguely uncomfortable, hefted McCoy up into his arms, much to Kirk’s growing amusement behind him. Spock strode from the platform, still carrying McCoy, making the de-aged doctor look even smaller with his tall and wiry frame.

“That’s what we’re going to try and find out, Scotty,” Kirk replied, calmly, despite the smile that still graced his face and warmed his hazel eyes. “Personally, I think it’s one of two things that caused this. Either something’s wrong with the transporter, or something happened on the planet below. I‘m doubting it‘s the former explanation, however, considering Scotty‘s usual attention to mechanical detail..”

He winked at Scotty from behind Spock’s back, acknowledging the chief engineer’s flawless upkeep of the Enterprise’s inner workings. Scotty grinned, before he said - “Aye, usually, ye would be quite right. However, I’m no so sure it’s not the equipment this time. We did have a problem with an electromagnetic storm jobbie a few moments ago, just as you were beaming aboard. It was the second storm we had in the past fifteen minutes. I have to say, though, neither ye nor Mr Spock have beamed aboard as a wee bairn, Cap’n. Just the doctor.”

Kirk harrumphed, his face taking on an expression of extreme thought as he digested the chief engineer’s words. He turned suddenly worried eyes upon McCoy’s small frame, even as the doctor groused at Spock that he was perfectly capable of walking upon his own two feet.

“I concur, Doctor. Perhaps it would be prudent for you to remove your boots before you attempt walking anywhere again,” Spock replied, dryly.

McCoy lifted one eyebrow at the Vulcan, in a fair approximation of the calm disapproval the doctor was capable of as an adult. Once again, Kirk thought it a little odd to see the good Doctor's adult mannerisms reflected upon his much younger body. He watched as Spock set McCoy upon the ground and waited while the doctor pulled his boots off with alacrity, leaving behind a pair of black sock covered feet. McCoy then rolled the bottoms of his pants up, steadfastly refusing to remove those too.

“I require some kind of dignity in my current state. What I wouldn’t do for some brandy right now,” McCoy sighed, small shoulders rising and falling mightily with the long-suffering gesture.

“Perhaps when you are returned to your body’s rightful age, Doctor,” Spock advised. “The mind might be at the correct age, but the body is not. To imbibe any amount of alcohol in your current state could prove harmful.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Just turn me back, already,” McCoy said, with a helpless look at Kirk. “You don’t realize just how much you miss until it’s gone.”

“Too true, Bones,” Kirk agreed, stoically. “I think we’ve all been in that position at some point. Although not quite in the same position as you currently are in. Anyway, we‘d best get ourselves to the Bridge, see what the problem was.”

McCoy rolled his eyes, before turning to leave the room, throwing the epithet that he was headed for the Bridge over his shoulder. Kirk smiled at Scotty, who smiled back.

“Much as I like him in his normal state, Jim, but ye gotta admit he’s kinda cute,” Scotty mused.

“Humans,” Spock was plainly heard to mutter and Kirk could just imagine the barely there Vulcan expression of being extremely put upon. “I shall never understand the human fascination for adolescents.”

“Cheer up, Spock; it won’t last long,” Kirk said, as he clapped the Vulcan heartily on the shoulder. “Besides, like I’ve told you before, you need to lighten up. Now, we need to follow McCoy before he gets abducted by one of the female members of the crew for the crime of being too cute.”

“I dinnae think McCoy will like that too much,” Scotty observed with a chuckle.

“I don’t know, Scotty. Beneath that grumpy doctor facade, I think Bones loves attention,” Kirk grinned back, before he nodded his goodbye to the engineer.

He gestured for Spock to follow him, before he strode from the Transporter room without waiting. As expected, Spock fell in beside him, face carefully guarded as his brown-eyed gaze scanned the corridor before them for signs of McCoy. It didn’t take long for the Vulcan to spot the easily distinguishable form of a small boy wearing a man’s clothes bobbling along further up the corridor. As expected, no female crew member was impervious to the charms of a de-aged McCoy. Though he protested, it was obvious to all that he didn’t mind the attention in the slightest.

 

*~*~*

Lieutenant Uhura looked up from her communicator console when she heard the sound of the door to the bridge “whooshing” open, and her gaze settled upon the amused face of Kirk, followed by the calm expression of Spock. She frowned, hearing the distinct sounds of three pairs of feet entering yet only seeing Kirk and Spock.

“Down here, my dear,” McCoy sighed, tone of voice sounding extremely long-suffering indeed.

Uhura looked down into the face of one Leonard Horatio McCoy, minus about thirty years of his age. She blinked, in disbelief, before a smile crossed her face, crinkling the corners of her eyes as she stared at the smaller, younger version of the ship’s doctor.

“Well, aren’t you the sweetest thing?” she cooed. “What happened?”

“You tell me, darlin,’ ‘cos I sure as hell don’t know,” McCoy said, crossing tiny arms across his chest.

Spock stared at McCoy as he returned to his post on the bridge, but otherwise remained inscrutably silent. Kirk settled himself beside McCoy and smiled slightly at Uhura over the top of the doctor’s tousled head.

“Something happened in the transporter room as we were beaming aboard,” Kirk explained. “All we know is that Scotty mentioned something about an electromagnetic storm interfering with his equipment.”

“He’s not the only one with his equipment being interfered with,” McCoy commented, as he stared down at his own body.

Uhura giggled at the doctor’s off-colour comment, before she replied to the Captain’s statement.

“I actually have an answer for that, Captain,” she said. “We encountered two rogue patches of electromagnetic interference. It just appeared out of nowhere, shimmied over the ship’s hull and disappeared again. It caused some disruption to the control panels all over the bridge but nothing major, nothing particularly binding. It lasted for perhaps about ten, fifteen seconds, kind of like a pulse or something.”

“That is highly logical, Captain. Electromagnetic interference is much like rain; in small doses, it does not prove much of a problem, but in higher doses, it could pose more of a pronounced problem,” Spock interjected from nearby. “And I am not just referring to interrupting with the normal functions of machinery.”

“You mean, such as moving particles, altering them slightly, perhaps on a human body?” Kirk asked.

“That would be the correct assumption, Jim. I concur,” Spock replied, formally. “I have to note, however, that in high doses, it could prove quite harmful to humans. Luckily for the doctor, it did not prove fatal, merely problematic. I would posit, given our new information regarding the electromagnetic storms, the trouble with the transporter and McCoy’s current de-aged state, that something occurred during transit to the doctor’s atoms. It would not be the first time that an electromagnetic interference would have interfered with the transporter’s functionality, as you would be well to remember. However, I have never known something of this magnitude occurring before in my entire career with Star Fleet.”

“No, me neither,” Kirk agreed. “Still, it’s the only logical explanation, and I know how you like your logical explanations, Spock.”

“Indeed,” Spock replied, with a small nod of deference to the captain.

“What say you, Bones? Do you think the electromagnetic disturbance interfered with you?” Kirk turned his next question upon the doctor standing beside him.

“Maybe. I wish it was anything other than electromagnetism that had interfered with my body though,” McCoy said, morosely, pouting slightly over some hidden inner turmoil.

“Such crude comments from a seven year old,” Kirk commented, feigning shock.

McCoy turned a scowl upon the captain, despite the fact that the vaguest of smiles was tugging at the corners of the doctor’s eyes and mouth. Kirk winked at McCoy before he said - “Perhaps we should get you to sick bay, mister, just to make sure there’s no lasting effects from the electromagnetism.”

McCoy nodded, but otherwise remained silent.

“Okay,” Kirk said, straightening from where he slouched and rubbing his hands together in decisiveness. “Off to Sick Bay with you, no slacking now.”

McCoy at least grinned at that, before he made his way from the bridge with Kirk in tow. Kirk gestured for Spock to follow them, to which the Vulcan pursued doggedly.

~*~*~

“Well, what an adorable little boy,” Nurse Christine Chapel proclaimed, when she saw the small form of the de-aged Leonard McCoy being led into the Sick Bay.

She smiled at the boy, suitably entranced by a pair of wide blue eyes staring back at her, and a shock of dark hair, small body in a uniform that looked more than a little familiar. Even the way the child stood was familiar, hands clasped behind his back, head held at a certain angle. She looked into that face one more time and saw a familiar scowl, and a look in too wide eyes that was unmistakably that of Leonard McCoy. Even the way that the boy was pouting reminded her of McCoy.

“Wait, is that Dr McCoy?” Chapel asked, directing the question into the amused smirk of Kirk. “What happened to him?”

“Hey, I’m right here, you know. Just because I look like a damn child, doesn’t mean to say I think or act like one,” McCoy said, scowl deepening as he stared up at Chapel. “I can speak for myself.”

“This is quite disquieting,” Spock said, quietly, from behind Kirk. “I find it most interesting that the doctor has retained all of his adult sensibilities, while maintaining the body of a child.”

“I’ll say,” Kirk agreed with the Vulcan. “Still, I thought I’d never see the day when I get to see what Bones was like as a kid.”

“Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a child,” McCoy said, frown deepening over too innocent eyes. “An adult doctor, I may add. This body? Only temporary. I am getting my real body back, if it‘s the last thing I do. I‘m attached to that body.”

He looked up into the face of the still smiling Chapel, before he sighed, shoulders drooping in defeat.

“I suppose you want to run some tests on me. Well, test away, my dear,” he said, to a soft snort of laughter from Kirk behind him.

“This is really weird,” Kirk said. “I’ve never heard a kid call an adult “my dear,” before.”

Spock remained silent, his eyebrow raised above a typically calm expression, as the Vulcan watched Chapel swing McCoy up onto one of the nearby beds. McCoy sat on the edge in his too large clothing, socked feet swinging slightly with impatience in mid-air. Spock had to admit that the sight of a human child was reasonably endearing, yet he posited that McCoy himself would quite likely beg to differ. Kirk, however, had no compunction against showing his affection for the small, and de-aged Doctor McCoy.

As they waited for Nurse Chapel to gather a few medical instruments together, another electromagnetic storm hit the hull of the Enterprise. Every light, every Indicator blinked and flashed, and dimmed. McCoy swore loudly, yet no one paid him any attention. When the lights had stabilized once more, Kirk gestured for Chapel to continue her tests once more, face set into a grim line of determination. McCoy sat silent and waiting as Chapel began to run hands over McCoy's small form, wincing slightly at the heat that emanated from his skin. She caught McCoy’s glare and tried to smile bravely at him.

“Tell me, Doctor McCoy, are you feeling discomfort in any way?” she asked, carefully.

“Define discomfort,” Kirk said from behind Chapel suspiciously, before McCoy could even speak.

“Well, Doctor McCoy here seems to be sustaining a very high body temperature, more like he’s running a fever,” Chapel explained. “He’s very hot.”

“Well, thank you, my dear. You’re not so bad, yourself,” McCoy replied, with a cheeky little grin up at the nurse.

Chapel blushed a little, but had the good grace to laugh at the doctor’s remark and not protest. Spock looked a little perturbed by the current shift in conversation and skilfully steered it to a more proper line of investigation.

“I must confirm that not one of us can verify the state of the doctor’s temperature. The captain has yet to touch him, while I am, of course, impervious to higher temperatures,” Spock replied. “Perhaps it would be prudent to activate the K3 indicator, to ensure the doctor’s comfort levels.”

“I’m fine,” McCoy protested.

“Spock’s right. Perhaps we should at least check,” Kirk advised, concern settling in his gaze but for an instant.

It was that concern that convinced McCoy to approach the head of one of the nearest beds, muttering something about hating being a patient. Kirk stood by, looking amused as the doctor laid one hand upon the K3 Indicator. His dark brows lowered and he caused the levels to shoot to 100%, while the cardiovascular monitors went wild. He smiled, and the levels went to a more normal and healthy rate again, while the K3 Indicator returned to 0%

“Okay, psychic boy, so we can ascertain that you can control the fluctuations of electricity in the monitors,” Kirk said. “Very clever.”

“It also indicates that McCoy is not in any current discomfort or pain,” Spock pointed out. “Although, judging from his little display with the monitors, the levels of electromagnetism within his body are unusually high. Considering the levels of electromagnetism around your Earth are in the tens of teslas, which is normal to Terrans such as yourself, I can only conclude that the level of teslas in McCoy's body are more in the hundreds, perhaps.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna pretend I understood that,” McCoy said. “All I know is I can make things work and I’m hot.”

“And also modest,” Kirk countered, with a smirk.

McCoy took no notice. Neither did Chapel or Spock. Kirk sighed and rolled his eyes at the way his funniest quips seemed to fly over everyone else’s heads.

“So now what?” McCoy asked.

Kirk glanced at Spock beside him, before he said - “What do you think, Spock?”

“The only conclusion I derive from this whole fiasco relies upon the assumption that another electromagnetic storm occurs while we are still in orbit around the planet of Ellicott VI. Assuming that does occur, then we can posit that travelling through the electromagnetic field once more would reverse the effects of de-aging upon the doctor’s body,” Spock replied, brown eyes peering down curiously at the doctor.

McCoy himself, didn’t seem to mind the scrutiny. If it helped him in the long run, then he didn’t see the problem in being treated as some kind of specimen for the time being.

“If you think I’m gonna continue being your version of a guinea pig after this is over, Spock, then you’ve got another think coming,” McCoy said.

“Really? I do not see how small, furred Earthly rodents have anything to do with your current condition, Doctor,” Spock said, vague curiosity underlying his words.

“It’s a turn of phrase, Spock,” Kirk supplied. “It refers to old practices upon old Earth, when scientists would test, for instance, cures and inoculations upon rats, mice, guinea pigs, even rabbits. All completely inhumane, of course.”

“Interesting. Although I deplore the use of animals for the sake of scientific enhancement, I can see the merits of doing so,” Spock replied. “It does not mean that I intend to use Doctor McCoy in much the same way, however. Your initial comment, McCoy, is a rather spurious one, as well as misplaced.”

McCoy rolled his eyes at the Vulcan, long-suffering expression decorating his face.

“Lord have mercy,” he sighed. “Vulcans will be the death of me.”

“Well, look on the bright side, Bones. At least you have the rest of your life to look forward to. This whole age reversal thing has given you the perfect grace period and no doubt added a few more years to your life,” Kirk said, supportively.

“Yeah, that’s just the body, Jim. The mind’s still painfully adult,” McCoy replied. “I really don’t know how that would work.”

“No, neither do I. Hopefully, we won’t have to find out firsthand,” Kirk replied.

“There is one thing, though, Captain,” Chapel said, breaking into the trio’s conversation for the first time. “Why McCoy? Why is he a little boy, and not you, or Spock for that matter?”

“My mind is highly trained to resist outside influences, Nurse Chapel. It is highly unlikely that fluctuations in electromagnetic fields outside the ship would affect me as it would the others. I have no theories upon the Captain’s resistance to the same field, however. At least, not yet, I haven’t,” Spock replied, gravely.

“Did you do anything different, Bones? Did you eat anything while on Ellicott? Drink anything?” Kirk asked.

“Yeah, I did as it happens. I think it was some kind of alcohol, possibly their version of brandy, but I don’t know if that’s what it was. I couldn’t pronounce the name again,” McCoy replied, immediately. “Other than that, no, I didn’t touch a thing.”

“How much did you have of this drink?” Kirk asked.

“I don’t know. A few shots, why?” McCoy replied.

“A few. Right. I think that might be the key,” Kirk said, to Spock. “Imagine if you will, a human brain, inhibitions lowered by the effects of alcohol. What do you think would happen when exposed to high levels of electromagnetism?”

“It depends upon the levels of alcohol and the type of interference you’re talking about, Jim,” Spock replied. “In this case, I must posit the fact that the electromagnetism must have been a negative force, as opposed to a positive, pulling McCoy’s body back through time to a state of seven years old. The alcohol in his system lowered his natural defences, whereas, in your case, Captain, you had no such lack of inhibitions as the doctor.”

“This all sounds a bit hokey, to me. Then again, I’m a doctor, not an astrophysicist,” McCoy spoke up.  
Neither Spock nor Kirk paid the doctor any heed, yet Chapel placed one hand upon McCoy’s head affectionately. McCoy, at least, smiled at that.

“Assuming you’re right, what would another burst of electromagnetism do to a certain de-aged body?” Kirk asked, already guessing the answer, yet needing Spock to verify it for him.

“It would quite likely reverse the effects already perpetrated upon McCoy’s body, returning him back to normal, once more,” Spock confirmed, immediately.

“What I thought,” Kirk said. “Well, I think this calls for a second trip to Ellicott VI. We need you to imbibe copious amounts of that alcohol you sampled before, Bones, or at least the same amount as you had before, at any rate. Don’t want to over-do it and turn you into an old man.”

“That wouldn’t do, at all,” McCoy agreed. “I like my body how it is, or rather how it should be.”

Chapel chuckled from behind McCoy, causing both Kirk and Spock to raise their eyebrows at one another. They, however, remained silent, until Kirk gave the order for them to return to the Transporter Room. Scotty looked up from his PADD upon their entrance, surprise etching lines around his kind brown eyes.

“Back so soon, Jim?” he asked, surprise warming his voice as it did his eyes, as he watched the Captain position himself upon the Transporter platform, flanked by the tall Spock and the considerably smaller McCoy.

“Yes, Scotty. We have some unfinished business planetside,” Kirk replied. “You’ll see when we return. Beam us down, Scotty.”

“Aye aye, Cap’n,” Scotty replied, before adjusting the controls and sending the trio on the platform spinning down to the surface of Ellicott VI.

~*~*~

McCoy had almost forgotten how hot the surface of the planet was, sticking his hair to his forehead almost immediately with the intensity of the humidity. His collar, already loose, was pulled out by one slender little hand, as the doctor tried to fan a breeze between tunic and skin. Kirk looked just as hot as McCoy felt, McCoy noticed, yet typically, Spock looked as unperturbed as ever. The doctor knew from experience just how hot the planet Vulcan was, and how hot Spock himself kept the temperature in his own quarters. McCoy, however, deplored the heat. Not even the hottest summers in the humid Georgia where he hailed from were never as hot as either Ellicott VI or the planet Vulcan.

They soon came to the market stall where McCoy had drunk from before, at which Kirk ordered some of the Endicottian brandy that McCoy had previously purchased. When handing the glass to McCoy, the market vendor objected quite strongly. Kirk knew, that to the vendor, it might seem odd for a grown man to hand to what appeared to be a child what amounted to a strong liquor.

“You can’t give a child that,” the market vendor protested, reaching out to take the drink back from McCoy, who glared in an all too adult manner at the vendor.

Kirk’s hand descended upon McCoy’s shoulder, squeezing slightly to convey to the doctor that he should keep his silence. It wouldn’t do for the vendor to hear the adult tones of McCoy issuing from the face of a seven year old boy. Even though the pitch of the voice was distinctly boyish, it was definitely the mind of a man that fuelled it and Kirk didn’t trust McCoy to not unleash the potty mouth McCoy could be famed for.

“Now, now, Leonard, it’s alright, son,” Kirk said, gamely, smiling at McCoy and tipping him a wink that only the doctor would see.

McCoy didn’t say anything; instead, he smiled up at the vendor, while holding stoically onto his drink.

“That’s your son?” the vendor asked, gaze transferring to McCoy to Kirk and back again.

Kirk knew that the likelihood of McCoy being his son was slim to none; after all, McCoy was dark haired and blue eyed, while Kirk himself was of fairer tones, hazel eyes more mischievous than McCoy’s more serious and forthright gaze.

“Yes, he is. Isn’t he just the finest specimen of a boy? I’m very proud of him,” Kirk said, not untruthfully. “I know he doesn’t resemble me in the slightest. I blame the other father for that. Don’t I, sweetheart?”

With that, he slapped Spock upon the Vulcan’s rear and winked at his Science Officer in a rather coquettish manner.

“Jim, this is highly illogical,” Spock replied, looking as disturbed as he ever was likely to get.

“I know. You can’t be accountable for Leonard’s colouring, can you?” Kirk asked, squeezing Spock’s shoulder just hard enough to get his point across, without alerting the vendor as to what he was doing.

“While that may be true ... “ Spock said, yet his words were drowned out by Kirk’s mouth descending upon his.

The captain could think of no other way to get the Vulcan to shut up and was quite surprised when Spock kissed him back. McCoy chuckled, a deep, bassy rumble that shook his slender little boy-frame, yet the vendor was paying the de-aged doctor no attention. Instead, he was staring at the still kissing Spock and Kirk with a sense of wonder and almost disgust. Kirk grinned when he ended the kiss, yet was only met with an arch lift of one Vulcan eyebrow.

“Fascinating. The human’s ability to derive pleasure from the simple act of kissing has not gone unnoticed, Captain,” Spock observed, clinically. “Although being emotionless myself, I can quite understand why you humans do it.”

“You know you love me, cupcake,” Kirk said, grin growing wider at the almost-but-not-quite incensed look that shifted behind Spock’s brown eyes.

He turned back to the vendor and clapped his hands together in a self satisfied gesture, raising up on the balls of his feet in a small hop of satisfaction.

“Now, then my good man, what do you say to another round of your finest Endicottian brandy, huh? I feel like celebrating,” he said, into the carefully blank face of the vendor. “Oh and give my son an extra mint julep, would you? I know he likes those.”

“As you wish, sir,” the vendor replied, faintly.

“I fail to see what we have to celebrate, Captain,” Spock said, carefully.

“Play along,” Kirk hissed, quietly, eyes suddenly shifting into stormy before clearing again.

“Interesting. If you insist,” Spock replied, with a faint look of almost amusement simmering at the corners of his mouth.

“Oh, I greatly insist, Spock,” Kirk replied, with a grand flourish at the vendor.

While Kirk and Spock sipped judiciously at their brandies, they made sure that McCoy imbibed just enough brandy as he had before, while keeping the vendor occupied and not asking too many questions. Kirk cleverly managed to steer the conversation around to the matter of electromagnetic storms in space, to which the vendor answered with the prompt response that such storms happened quite frequently during the summer months.

To his limited knowledge, he stated that said storms were a product of an anomalous gravitational field - proudly declared to be something he’d heard from a scientist friend of his. Each storm occurred fifteen minutes apart from each other, which Spock soon countered with the information that they had a maximum of six minutes left before the next storm occurred.

“Okay, thank you, sir. I think we need to be heading back to the Enterprise post-haste,” Kirk concluded, with a satisfied sigh.

They hurried back to the rendezvous point as arranged, and Kirk opened communications with Scotty aboard the Enterprise. When Spock nodded, indicating the end of the six minute grace period, Kirk gave the order to beam them aboard, and Kirk felt the same shifting familiarity of transportation. Again, as before, he felt the odd shifting and shimmering about his senses, of being in one place and in another, before settling into the creamy confines of the Enterprise again.

He almost didn’t dare look to his left, but Spock’s carefully measured tones confirmed the best case scenario.

“It is good to have you back amongst us, Doctor McCoy,” the Vulcan said, formally.

“Why, thank you, Spock. It’s good to be a man again,” McCoy said, with a broad grin at the captain.

“Good to have you back, mister,” Kirk said, with a firm slap against McCoy’s shoulder.

He turned to stride off the transporter platform, before Spock called him back again.

“I would greatly appreciate it if you did not attempt to kiss me again, in the near future,” he said, with a glower at the captain.

“You kissed me back,” Kirk said, defensively. “And don’t deny it.”

“That was an anomaly, sir,” Spock said, defiantly.

“Anomaly, my ass,” McCoy said, loudly.

“Quite,” Spock replied, with his usual carefully blank expression. “I do not quite understand what your “ass” has to do with anything, Doctor, but I do assure you that the kiss was anomalous.”

“That’s not what I’d call it,” Kirk laughed. “It was actually quite nice.”

Spock heaved a sigh and strode from the transporter room, a muttered diatribe against incorrigible Terrans floating after him. McCoy and Kirk shared a grin, before they, too, followed in the ship’s Science Officer back to the bridge once more.

~~ the end ~~


End file.
